


Oliver is Fine.

by Ever_After_AAA



Category: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, fear of water, he misses his mom, not very happy but optimistic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:20:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25539439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ever_After_AAA/pseuds/Ever_After_AAA
Summary: Oliver is not scared of water. Oliver is fine. He will get his mom back, so he has no reason to be afraid. He never has.
Relationships: Alicia & Oliver (Ni No Kuni), Jairo | Swaine & Maru | Esther & Oliver (Ni no Kuni) & Shizuku | Drippy
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Oliver is Fine.

Oliver was fine.

He was doing well. Esther had joined him and Mr. Drippy. They had even completed the trials, and were on their way to Al Mamoon to figure out what to do next.

The volcano was erupting. 

Old Smoky was erupting and could destroy Al Mamoon. People would die. Families would be torn apart and melted under the heat of the lava that would soon flow into the town. 

Esther would lose her dad. 

Oliver couldn't let that happen. He knew how it hurt. It hurt too much. It hurt too much and he was fine now he would get her back but it wasn't fine before. It wasn't fine before because he lost her and it wouldn't be fine for Esther because she wouldn't get him back. It wouldn't be fine for Esther. It wouldn't be fine for anyone in town. He had to stop it.

Old Smoky was hot.

It burned and Oliver was thirsty and he was so hot. There was no water on the volcano. The rivers were fire and at least he knew that would hurt him. He had a reason to be scared of the lava.

They did it.

They saved the town. Esther didn't lose her dad. Oliver did lose his mom, but he is fine now. He will get her back. He doesn't have her now but he will get her. He will.

The next sage is overseas.

They have to go overseas. On the water. They can find a boat in Castaway cove. They can find a fast boat, a boat that will shorten the journey. They won't have to be on the water for too long. They would be on solid ground soon enough. They just had to get off it first.

Oliver was fine.

He was. The wood was sturdy under his feet and the water lapped at him with a nauseating rhythm. The boards were strong. They wouldn't fall. They wouldn't break off like a wheel from an unsturdy car. He wouldn't fall out into the water that was surely higher than he was tall. He was safe. He was perfectly safe. Even when he fought the genie the wood held fast.

They needed the Cowlipha's help. 

They needed to go back to Al Mamoon, where the sand moved underfoot and had no water beneath it. Where it was unsturdy but sure and Oliver could breathe. It took less time than Oliver wished to get her permission to use the "Floaty-Woaty" which sounded oh-so-sturdy.

Oliver almost fell.

The thief took the letter and the picture of the sage and ran. Oliver almost fell. He looked down into the sea that glittered an innocent blue and almost fell in. He almost didn't notice what the thief stole. He ran to get it back, to get out of the waterlogged town and to get the voyage over with.

Oliver was fine.

He had fought a nightmare before. In Rusty's Auto repair shop. He had fought one on solid ground and won. He had won and he would win again. He would be fine. It didn't matter that he was on rickety old boards that had been soaked in saltwater for who-knows-how-long. He would win and he would stay perfectly dry in doing so.

Oliver was fine. 

A storm had blown in. It wouldn't capsize the boat. It wouldn't. It wouldn't be like it was before. Nobody would die. Nobody would.

Shadar was there. 

He was there on the boat, fighting them, but not really trying. He was watching. Watching how Esther and Swaine fought. Watching Oliver fight him and drinking in the fear that boiled up from the fight and all of the water-

Oliver. Was. Fine.

He wasn't scared. He wasn't scared of the water. He wasn't. He may have been a bit frightened of Shadar, but that's to be expected. Everyone was scared of Shadar. Nobody, not even Oliver, was scared of the water. Nobody. Oliver wasn't scared. He wasn't. Esther and Swaine and Drippy weren't scared of the water and neither was Oliver. Not even a little. He was only scared of Shadar but Shadar wasn't nearly as scary as the not-scary-water and Oliver knew he would win. Shadar wasn't here to win but Oliver was. Shadar kept glancing at the water, like he was nervous. But Oliver knew he couldn't be. He was probably thinking of how easy it would be to capsize the boat, to flip everyone Oliver had left. Shadar wasn't here to win, he was here to scare them. Oliver wasn't scared. He wasn't. He would win and get his mom back and he wouldn't be scared of the water. He wouldn't. Oliver would be fine. He would. He is fine. He is.

The eye of the storm is looking at him.

It meets his eyes and a glimmer of cruel joy lights in it. Oliver isn't scared. He won't get her back if he is scared. He needs her. He can't be alone. The eye looks at him and knows what he wants and a wave goes over the side and it doesn't capsize but it soaks Oliver and leaves him shivering and petrified. 

Pea saves him.

She saves him. She stops the boat from sinking and puts them on the island and Drippy doesn't like it and Oliver wishes there was less water around him but it's an island. It's solid ground and he is so so grateful and if someone notices how much happier he is to be here he plays it off as happy to be alive. Because he is happy he is alive and he's happy that Swaine and Esther and Drippy are alive and Pea didn't die saving them. They're alive. Oliver doesn't have to be scared because they're there and he can't be scared if he isn't alone.

They have to help Drippy's mom.

They have to save the littlies. Oliver doesn't understand why Drippy doesn't want to talk to his mom. Oliver would give anything to have his mom with him right now. He is going to save the littlies because losing family is the worst, and he can't let that happen to the fairies.

Oliver is underwater.

They save the littlies but they're shot into the pond. Oliver lands in water just below his head and he uses a rock to keep himself above the surface but even though he is above the water he can't breathe. He can't breathe. He isn't scared he can't breathe. Swaine notices the fearful look on his face and pulls him out of the river while everyone is distracted. Oliver is wet and not scared. He won't let himself be scared. He can breathe again. Swaine is there and not so far away that he isn't there but not so close that Oliver has to let him see that he is fine. He is fine. Swain is sitting there with his back to him and watching the littlies and the fairies and Esther laugh and play and they're alive and Swaine is alive. Swaine is alive so Oliver is fine. Swaine doesn't ask. Oliver doesn't have anything to tell. Oliver is fine.

They're going on the boat again. 

They have to go on the boat that almost sank once already but at least they're going to real land. Not a tiny little island that no matter which direction you look or go you still see and hear the waves battering the coast, pulling grains of sand into its depth and making the island smaller, grain by grain. Swaine still doesn't ask. Oliver won't admit he has something to tell.

Swaine has to watch his dad die.

Swaine has to go through the pain of losing a parent twice. He loses his dad and then has a decade to heal and that wound is ripped open. It must be like a bullet, not there and suddenly there, painful and it must have pierced through him and the entry wound hurt but the exit wound was worse, because it ripped through and took. Oliver doesn't want to assume he knows how his friend feels because it would be worse for Swaine. It must be, he knew it was coming and when Ollies mom died he didn't have to anticipate it for more than a decade. Swaine probably didn't know how soon his dad died, either. He probably didn't get word for a few days, or maybe a few months. He probably thought there was time for little Marcissan to adjust, at least a little, to being without Gascon. But there wasn't. There's never time to be with someone once they die. Except for Oliver. Because Oliver is going to get her back. He's going to get her back so he's not scared to be without her. He's not. He promises. He knows he is getting her back. He knows Swaine isn't getting him back, not again. So he lets him grieve. He will be there for him. Oliver wants to remember to thank Miss Leila for being there when she died. When he thought she wasn't coming back. But she is. He won't be alone.

They get the travel spell from Marcissan. 

The adult, that is. And Oliver is so relieved. They can just magic to where they need to go. They can magic there and it's so much faster, and he will find Alicia so much sooner. He is happy about that, not the fact that they don't have to use the boat. He doesn't care that the deep waves are behind them. It doesn't matter that he doesn't have to look around and see where he could fall overboard. It doesn't. He wasn't even scared of that in the first place. They have to boat to the Sky Pirates, but it's a short ride to get to Skull Mountain. To Oliver it feels like years. It's because he knows how much faster he could get there if he had been there before. It must be.

Oliver likes the Iron Wyvern.

It's so cool. A flying ship! Phil would give an arm and a leg to see this. Oliver almost has. Oliver likes it more than the other boat. The other boat was wood. This is steel, this isn't fragile, this wouldn't sink to the bottom of the sea with its crew inside. Oliver isn't scared of the Iron Wyvern. He wasn't scared of the weak old boat, either. He's just more not-scared of the flying one. 

Tengri was sick.

Tengri was sick but Oliver helped him. He got the nightmare away from Denny. He saved Tengri and Tengri wants to fly with him. Tengri can go anywhere. Tengri can go where the wobbly boat does and it can go where the wobbly boat doesn't. Oliver laughs when they fly, so so high and so so far away from the ocean. It's the rush of flight that gets to him, not the idea that the water can't hurt him. The water wouldn't hurt him anyway, as long as he didn't fall in and drown or have a heart attack like mom. Oliver was fine, on Tengri. He was better than fine on Tengri. They go to the little island Kublai tells them to and they don't find anything there but they know where to look now. Somewhere cold, somewhere on shipwreck shore, and somewhere on the sea. It's probably an island. What else would it be, a boat?

The second stone is a boat.

The first one was in the Vault of Tears, and it was damp and wet but they didn't have to be on the water. They helped the frogs get back to each other and be human again and fought the big snake and it was easy. The second stone was on a boat. They knew it because it moved. The water-boat ship captain said it was the right speed for a boat. Oliver hated it because it would take more time to get to. Not because it was on the water. The water didn't scare him. He knew. He wasn't scared when the dead captain fought him and he wasn't scared when he won. They finished the fight and got to shore and Oliver called Tengri to fly them to the last stone after a short night's rest because he needed to be away from the boat because it was too slow. No other reason. He just wanted to be faster. That's all. He wasn't scared. He couldn't be scared.

The last one was in ice.

It was cold. There was no way there could be much water at this temperature. Oliver didn't have to worry about drowning. Ever. He didn't have to worry about it before but he didn't have to worry about it more here. They had to go into the glittering grotto to get the last stone. It was fine. It was just ice. Monsters attacked them and Oliver let out a fireball and took a step forward and slipped on the melted ice it had made. The water. He looked up at the ice covering the ceilings, forming the walls and floor. Ice that could melt and drown all of them. Everything in the world would drown if he melted it. Oliver didn't use fireball anymore. He didn't look when the others used fire moves, either. Fire hurt his eyes. That's all. And when Cerboreas attacked he didn't use fire and dodged all of the attacks where he sent water at them and he was fine. He wasn't scared.

Queen Khulan does not love.

Nobody here loves. The ghost from Hamlin does. Nobody alive here does. Oliver has to fight her nightmare. And it's hard. But it's not scary. Nothing really scared him these days. Not even water.

Pip is Phil's soulmate. Phil is heartbroken.

He is waiting at the river. Oliver hates it. He was so scared for his friend. It's the only thing he's scared of. Losing his friends. Not water. Just loss. They save Phillip and they need to find ambition. And the will. They will find Phil ambition and they will find Oliver's mom and he won't fail. The locket glows and it's Oliver who has Phil's ambition and Oliver would break his heart a hundred times for Phil to be whole. He'd do it again and again because he can't let Phil be hurt. Phil will not be hurt because of him. They hug and Oliver cries but he isn't ashamed of it. Phil is crying too. Phil doesn't cry and if he's crying Oliver knows it's ok to. Oliver soaks in the moment he has with Phil because they might not have another. But Phil doesn't need to know that. Because Oliver will win. Phil won't know what Oliver did. But it will be done anyway. Oliver and Phil are best friends. They love each other. They will see eachother again.

The brothers work together to finish the clarion.

Oliver is glad they have each other. They have each other and they can't go toward this together but they don't need to. It reminds Oliver of Phil. Of his best friend who would be here if he could but he can't. Who would help him if he could but he's stuck at home like Marcissan is. Oliver is happy they have this moment together. Happy that if someone doesn't make it they will have this to cherish. 

They are off to the Miasma Marshes. 

It's disgusting and mucky and the water isn't water and Oliver doesn't know if he prefers it that way. At least he's used to avoiding puddles. He's good at it now. They find Vileheart and he has the soulsnare they get it back and he's going to get her back.

He doesn't get her back.

He will never get her back. She's gone forever. No magic to put her where the pain is. Oliver is back in his home. His house in Motorville. But it's not a home anymore. She's home. And she isn't here. She's gone. There is nobody here, and Oliver is not fine. He can't be fine. Not when he's alone. When he isn't alone he can be fine. But there is no one here to see that. So he can be not fine. There is no one here to call him a cry-baby, no one to tell him not to be upset. No one to make him 2 eggs and 3 slices of bacon in the morning, and no one to remind him to grab his bag. There's no one to go to when he's upset. Not since...

Pea is here.

She isn't no one, but he can't start being fine. Not yet. Maybe not ever. But Pea doesn't ask him to be fine. She only asks him to keep trying, so others can be fine. 

He isn't fine. He feels sick and shaky but he doesn't care anymore. He goes back to Swaine and Drippy and Esther and they go to fight him and finish this and Oliver knows what's going to happen to him.

If Shadar is stopped there will be so many people who were hurt who won't hurt anymore. Who would have been hurt if Shadar was allowed to continue. Oliver won't let anyone else hurt. 

Oliver is afraid of water. Shadar is not water. Oliver can take him. He is not alone anymore.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Podfic- Oliver Is Fine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25539712) by [Ever_After_AAA](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ever_After_AAA/pseuds/Ever_After_AAA)




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